This I Believe

In the winter of my high school years, I was always extremely busy. Between junior Olympic volleyball, softball conditioning, my social life, and my school work I was always running around. My junior year was no exception, but when my grandpa was put into the hospital, to have part of his foot amputated, I made sure to go visit him at least once. I told him how much he was missed and how as soon as he was out I would come see him and play all the games we used to play together to get him back in the loop. I didn’t get to stay as long as I would have liked, because I had to be at the gym to help out with the freshman team. I left him with a hug and a kiss and assumed that I would see him in a few days. It was then, however, that I saw my grandpa for the last time.

A month went by, softball practice had started and I had volleyball tournaments on the weekend, but I still hadn’t put any thought into where my grandpa was at. I was in my own little high school world, and didn’t really see anything else important, that is until one day my mom told me my grandpa was back in the hospital. This news upset me because I hadn’t even realized he had been out and I hadn’t worked him into my schedule. Which even saying it now sounds ridiculous. When my mom told me that he was worse than before, I mentioned if I had time later that week I would stop up and bring Mexican Dominos, a favorite game of my grandpa’s, to play with him like I had promised. Three days later, I woke up to my mom walking in my room crying. When I asked her what was wrong she explained to me that my grandpa had died during the night of a heart attack. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing and even worse, I couldn’t believe I let all the little things I had to do go before visiting him. I hadn’t gotten to do a lot of things I would have liked to or said some things that needed to be said.

I have let life pass me by in such a hurry and put off things because, “they can be done tomorrow,” or “I have better things to do.” I believe that I put too many things off and place insignificant things before the important stuff, assuming that it can be done later. Sometimes there is no in a little bit, tomorrow, or next week. Sometimes there is just now. I can’t change things with my grandpa, nor can I bring him back to do the things I had planned, but what I can do is set that as an example for why it is such a bad idea to let little things run your life. Time, especially with the ones we care about, is a precious thing, a lot more valuable than most people make it out to be. So next time my mom asks me to go shopping with her or my grandma just wants me to come over and hang out, I am more likely to stop what I’m doing and go, than just wait until I have less to do. Why put off something important until tomorrow, when you can do it today.

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This week’s essay

Growing up in the former Yugoslavia, lawyer Djenita Pasic enjoyed the peace of her religiously diverse country. But after the fall of communism and the outbreak of the Bosnian War, Pasic was forced to reevaluate her ideas about religion and tolerance. Click here to read her essay.